‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is not half as bad as feared

The good news is that “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” directed by David Yates, isn’t half as bad as I feared it would be, given the cluster-bomb that was “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which was also directed by Yates.
The really astounding news is that Michael Gambon was not a complete embarrassment to himself and to the entire profession of acting, as he was in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” In his fourth outing as Albus Dumbledore, Gambon is actually within shouting distance of the character most of the time, and has a few moments that are even well-considered.
The bad news, delivered by my 7-year-old boy after the screening: “It’s boring. It’s the worst of all the Harry Potter movies.”
But, to be fair, that’s because he is 7. There weren’t enough explosions or slapstick falls for his taste, which may mean the repeat-viewing box-office and DVD sales will be off. But for teens, there’s plenty of romantic humor and modest fireworks, as love finally begins to bloom between Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley, and between Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.
And the quidditch scenes this time are great.
The movie opens at many locations in the Bay Area tonight at midnight:01.
In “Half-Blood Prince” there are heavy issues at hand, leading to one of the most significant of all the deaths in the blood-spattered Harry Potter series. For people older than 7 there is a lot to keep them on the edges of their seats, even if quite a bit of it is shown in dialogue-heavy exposition instead of in action.
It’s no more Mr. Nice Lord Voldemort, for one thing. Whereas the most dangerous dark wizard of all time was laying low in “Phoenix,” in this movie he and his followers are wreaking havoc pretty much everywhere in Great Britain, murdering magic folks and muggles pretty much at will. People are afraid, and even Ollivander’s wand shop is deserted and ruined, as is most of Diagon Alley.
Perhaps to make that point, Yates throws in an invented scene — that is, a scene not in the book by J.K. Rowling — wherein Harry and Ginny are lured into a kind of swamp by the Weasley’s home, then attacked by Bellatrix Lestrange and Fenrir Greyback, who set the Weasley’s house on fire.
It’s an odd scene because it’s not really needed, doesn’t advance the story, and takes up time that could have been better used for other purposes in bringing Rowling’s significantly complicated and detailed story to the screen. Oh well; it’s only a movie.
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione and Rupert Grint as Ron are all wonderful, as they have been since “Sorcerer’s Stone,” and Bonnie Wright has become even more attractive as Ginny, the love of Harry’s life.
Oddly, Alan Rickman, who has been absolutely spot-on in his every moment on screen as the completely unlikable Severus Snape, is cleaner in this movie than he was in the first five. Someone let Snape shampoo his hair, which is largely out of character, but Rickman is so great in the role that it doesn’t much matter.
Jim Broadbent, an Oscar-winning character actor, is new to the Potter troupe, and does a fine and charming job as Prof. Horace Slughorn. Jesse Cave is likable as Lavender Brown, even as she calls Ron “Won-Won.” Oddly, when Hermione attacks “Won-Won” with magic birds, they miss him altogether and explode against a door. A chance missed.
And another odd detail: The Hogwarts Express was previously an all first-class affair, with the sort of compartments used only by the upper classes in Britain. In this movie, part of the train is second-class, and that is where Draco Malfoy (well played by Tom Felton) is seated. Which would never happen.
Oliver and James Phelps are back, all too briefly, as Fred and George Weasley. The Phelps twins have developed a devoted following. They have new haircuts, which will no doubt lead to much discussion on blogs.
I thought it was funny that Voldemort’s cave, where a horcrux had been hidden, was apparently modeled after Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.
This is the sixth of eight films being made from the seven books. The last book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” will be split into two movies.
In “Half-Blood Prince,” Harry learns more about Voldemort’s background, and about the dark objects Voldemort created called horcruxes, in an effort to make himself immortal. There are issues of good and bad and the choices people make between them. The Rowling books are brilliant, poetic, in their exposition of this theme. The movies skim over the high points with varying degrees of success.
“Half-Blood Prince” is not the worst of the Harry Potter film series — despite what my 7-year-old says — nor is it the best. But it serves almost well enough to set up films seven and eight, as long as you don’t demand emotional or intellectual depth in your movies.

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This review sounds like it was written by one of those die-hard fans that spend all their time on message boards lamenting about each and every little change that are made to the movies. They can’t be exactly like the books; each installment would be four hours long, and any 7 year old in the theater, no matter how big a fan, would be bored to tears.

Joe

This review sounds like it was written by someone who appreciates the Harry Potter books as well as a good movie. I was going to see this movie no matter what, but good to know that its about on par with the series as a whole. Also, i like how Glen apparently wrote his response while skimming the review.

Celia

I’m so excited to see this movie and I can’t believe it’s finally here! This review is very refreshing because I feel like it’s coming from someone who knows what they’re talking about. They’ve read the books and they know the storyline. I’m surprised to hear that the author doesnt think theirs enough emotional depth when everyone I’ve spoken to and every other review I’ve read PRAISES the focus on character development and the emotional aspect of the film. I’m just going to judge it for myself, but I KNOW I’m going to love it. All the previous movies have been brilliant and I have no doubt this will be too.

RIRI

SORRY I DISTRUB YOUR TIME BUT I JUST WANT THE SAY I FENS WITH YOU

Pete

I just got home from seeing it at a preview. It was OK. It was just a run on movie like the lord of the rings. It leaves you hanging just like in one of those movies. You would have to be a die hard fan to love it. I thought it was OK.

Sort of a chick flick lots o kiddy romance.

annett

ok first of all duh most of us are acutal die hard fans. and I am pretty sure u havent even read books thats why you dint enjoy it as much. and no shit of course it lives you hanging, its a series !! Anyways I am sooooo excited cant believe its FINALLY HERE! 🙂

CARLA

eu amooooooooooo harry potter ele é lindOOOOO AMO ELE !!!

Ramone (from Jamaica)

Honestly, this is one of the stupidest reviews I have ever read… and it goes to show that you cannot always follow what you read. I agree with Glen G! Dude, get a life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vicki (from Australia)

I’m a Die Hard Harry Potter Fan,i saw the movie this moning and I Gotta say David Yates is not the best director. The 15 minute scene spent at the burrow when Bellatrix and Fenrir attack is completely pointless they could have used that time to do the big battle between Dumbledores Army, the Aurors and the Deatheaters. Not to mention he ruins Harry and Ginny’s first kiss with a lame scene in the room of requirements. It’s got some really funny parts and it’s good to watch but nowhere near the film i think the fans would be looking foward to.

Alex

I am a Harry Potter fan like others, I’ve read all the books and I have to say this movie dissapointed me. It skipped alot of important things and like Vicki said, there were some scenes that were unneccisaryly long. For my friend who I saw it with who hasn’t read the books said that it seemed liked they skipped around a bit.

Kyle

This movie was by far the worst of the Harry Potter Films. Unlike previous films in the series, the movie seemed to lack the subtle connections and flow from scene to scene. While adapting or adding parts to the film that were not in the book usually doesn’t bother me, the additions to this film were pointless and really added nothing to the plot of the film.

The acting on the part of the teenage relationships within the film can be described as awkward at best. While it is expected that these relationships may be a little awkward, the cheesy dialogue made these scenes more comical than they should have been and overall took away from the film as a whole. However, my main issue with this film is that if you haven’t read the books you really don’t know what is going on as the director really adds no background stories to fill in the gaps from scene to scene.

Needless to say, while I am a casual Harry Potter fan who has read the books I find myself extremely disapointed in this film especially after the long wait from the last one!

Danielle

OMFREAKINGG!! I just saw the movie and I felt like throwing a tomatoe at the screen! They left out some of the most important parts! How could they not put in dumbledored FREAKING funeral! I am a die hard fan but I never expect movies to be just like the book but omg it looks like they didnt even read the book! There was no swamp scene, how bout put in some of fred and geaorges shop instead of rewriting a book your trying to base a movie on!

DONT SEE THE MOVIE YOU’LL JUST DISSAPOINT YOURSELF!

Cathy

well they left most off the book out of the movie and added stuff that was never in the book. were was the sceen were Harry and Dumbledor ( in a memory) vistet the gaunts house, ( very importent part of the story)and how about the white Tomb HUH! were they lay dumbledor to rest on the ground of hogwarts, it was like they did very little of the book, just a paragraph the story. I hope they have enough brains to correct it for when it comes out on DVD uggggg

karlmanalang

Book readers did not like it. Movie fans did not like it. Kids don’t like it.
My dad did not like it (adults). Die hard fans did not like it. There were a lot
of things that they could have done to make things better. It was so obvious
that they skimmed on the effects. Throughout the whole movie I was praying
for an awesome, hogwarts battle….as a saving grace! Of course there was
none. Then I hoped for a spectacular/emotional funeral….there was none.
The whole title “HALF BLOOD PRINCE” was not explained suitably! Really
one line with snape saying I am the half blood prince?…… They have a lot to
make up for in the next and last movie and all I can say to this movie is
that it was a necessary one …. but it leaves a lot to be explained…my
recommendation? rent it! or just read the book dammit.

Rafael

If you readed the book the you know the movie sucks, I wasted my time going to the theather, seemed like I was watching the actors making fun of everyone that bought their tickets, also if you are a HarryPotter fan of movies, don’t say it is a good movie untill you see it, because believe me you are not gonna like the movie, even if you didn’t read the book, what happend to the minister of magic?, what happenend to the werewolves?, to Fleur and Bill?, to Tonks and Lupin?, why no one tried to fight against Bellatrix and Fenrir Greyback?, in the book everyone was prtecting Hogwarts, in the movie they were sleeping I suposse.

The Movie Sucks, I agree with everyone that said that before.

Casey

I was really disappointed in the book, but I thought that they would be able to savage the story into a good movie… but I was wrong.

Simply stated, the title should have been “Harry Potter Cheats at Potions and Nobody Cares (Except Hermione)”. That would more accurately describe the story.

I was surprised at the ending… no battle, no funeral. Needlessly changed the only important parts of the book, and added needless scenes that further make the story pointless.

JamesSirius

This is mostly @ Glen. You say the movies can’t be exactly like the books. I agree, but if you’re going to make changes, make changes that enhance the storyline/characters or scenes that deliver overarching themes into a nice little package (As a trip to the Gaunts or Hepzibah Smith’s house along with a brief explanation of Voldemort’s obsession with valuable objects and heirlooms would have done). It seems like Yates was trying emulate Jackson by telling his own Harry Potter story, similar to Jackson’s LOTRs, except Jackson had sound reasoning for making the changes and omissions he did. All of Jackson’s changes were necessary for translating LOTR onto a new medium. All of Yates changes seemed like change just for the sake of change, which we can all agree is never good.

lauren

i was a bit annoyed that the battle between the death eaters and the order of the phoenix wasn’t in the movie, its the best part. And i couldn’t understand how the death eaters and snape just strolled out of the castle but the film was good overall. No dumbledores funeral 🙁

Harry Potter

The movie sucks. If you have not read the 6th book and had high expectations, you will be most likely disappointed along with everyone in the cinema

Mister

Does anyone feel that the colours were rather dull? The only bit of colour is at the end when Fawkes flies off. It may be significant when he says that the place is very beautiful but really, not to the expense that the whole movie scenes looks drab and boring

i think the harry potter movie’s from 3- now were so badly made they will be probably remade in the future. As for the first 2 were true and presented harry potter how it should of been in the world of magic, but now it has became a crappy teen flick.

Derek

i like everyone else was probably amped up for the movie only to be let down once again. I think the films have gone down hill since the idiot of a directer Yates has taken over. The reason the first two films were good was because Rowling took part in the movies by helping write the script and Columbus is a great director. The highlight of the film for me was Dumbledore doing the ring of fire inside the cave and the preview for Sherlock Holmes. I was greatly dissapointed with their being no fight scene when they got back from the cave as well as their being no funeral for Dumbledore which is complete bulll**** since he was as a huge character throughout the books. the add in scenes were a complete waste of time and i can’t believe Yates didn’t show all of the memories Albus collected because the main plot of the 6th book was learning as much as possible about Voldemort because its key for the 7th book. So for yates and this movie gets 2 thumbs way down and i wish there was a way for someone else to come in and direct the last 2 movies but thats way to late. I also see them wanting to split the last movies into 2 just to suck as much money out of the Harry Potter fans. Hopefully sometime in the next 15-20 years they decide to redo these and actually make all the films over 3 hours long because as long as the movie is good no one really cares if its longer

JOsh

The movie was an abject failure as a work of cinema and as an adaption. It misses for forest for the trees and even misses the biggest of trees.

jonathan lovell

I’m another disappointed person who believes that the whole series of films should follow the story line of the book in detail, otherwise what is the point?
People will say a seven year old will not sit through a three or four hour film, so why not go back to the ice cream during intermission. Chance to go for a pee, cinema makes more money on your £10 microwaved hotdog and we get to see a film in its entirety. Add to the fact as well that a really good film never dies. Look at Walt Disney constantly making money out of 1 film made 65 years ago releasing it to up and coming generations. I bet Lord of the Rings gets re released in 5 years time again along with new production The Hobbit. As for the missed scenes in HBP CRIMINAL!!!!

Jenn

I saw the midnight release. It. Was. Terrible. I’m an HP fanatic, and I went with two friends- one, a casual reader of the books; the other, never read it. Neither of them understood or liked it. It didn’t make any sense. Why make things up to put in, when you’re cutting things that are better? David Yates is nearly as bad as Michael Bay, and that’s pretty awful.

john

Your 7 year old hit the nail on the head. This was by far the worse Potter movie made to date. I was left thinking “WTF” the whole 2.5 hours.

Josh

Dissapointing to say the least… Drawn out and poorly directed to be blunt…. really just an absolute failure. I have never gone into a movie with such high hopes (trailer for the movie was great) and been 100% let down.
Not only was Dumbledore (who ever since movie 2, has been “out of character and ill portrayed”) done a great in justice by not having his incredible funeral…. but pointless scenes were added and almost EVERY important scene was left out. Not to mention the fact that the pivotle scenes that were attempted, sucked!
How and the hell did this movie make it out?! Did J.K Rowling just not give a damn?!
I understand that the movie cant contain every detail found in the book but if your going to make a two and a half hour movie, you could at least replace the made up scene with a real scene like: The battle inside the school, or Dumbledores Funeral!
I hated the movie and to state one last thing: How and the hell do you tie the Deathly Hallows in, when they didnt even bury Dumbledore with his wand (which was sitting in his office at the end of the movie), its one of the Hallows!!!! It was the reason that Dumbledore wanted Snape to kill him! To have it cast aside like just another movie prop is not only insulting to me as a fand but also, to the story in itself…
J.K Rowling, how did you let this happen?!

Deni

I agree that the movie was a bit of a let down, having it be pushed back a few months and building more suspense but I think it was the funniest out of all the movies. I’ve read both the last two books and I believe that they will try and make up the slack in the last movie, especially if they’re is a lot of bad reviews. I know it may seem you have wasted your money on tickets but honestly I believe I’m better for having seen the movie, so now I can appreciate the books a lot more and if you’re only a movie fan of harry potter, then maybe you might want to do a bit of reading, it will make more sense.

Mr. Me

Yeah, no it was awful. I didn’t want it to stick strictly with the book, but the cardinal sin it commits is being one big navel gazing bore of a flick that cut out the one thing that might’ve redeemed, the really big, cool fight scene at the end. (Who wasn’t looking forward to the big giant coming out and bashing everything up with his club.)

It’s like cutting the NEO Smith Subway fight out of the Matrix.

It sucked. Sooooo hard.

joanie

i didnt see the movie yet but like my friends who have read the book arent really impressed by it but those who didnt read it were quite happy with the movie . Ive read the books but why set a house on fire????its not in the book if i remember well so i think everyone is divided in half so i guess well have to wait and see how much money at the box office it gets even though im sure twilight will have a better sucess.

Tammy

So disappointed. Why add the swamp/burrow scene? How will Fleur and Bill be married at the Burrow at the beginning of book 7 when there is no Burrow? Oh, I forgot….Yates completely left out Fleur and Bill, along with the very informative trip through the pensieve to learn about the Gaunts. And why the heck did he water down the Death Eaters/Phoenix/Aurors/students fight scene? And simply have Harry standing there watching Dumbledore be killed as opposed to having him under his invisibility cloak while under Dumbledore’s petrificus totalus spell? Even my 10-year-old is ticked off!

Oh, Tammy! You are so right! I’d completely forgotten to mention how Harry just stands there like a doorknob while Dumbledore is being killed! That is perhaps the most abominable error in the entire series of films! It was SO WRONG that I must have blocked it from my mind when writing the review.

Yes, Harry did what Dumbledore told him to do, but it is not for nothing that Dumbledore actually petrifies Harry UNDER HIS INVISIBILITY CLOAK for that scene.

Maybe this film IS dragon dung, not just horse manure.

Jan

Rowling please wake up, they are murdering your baby!

anonymuos

Indeed Rowling please wake up. Your creation is being murdered. Yates should be crucified first using Crucio, then Imperio before using Avade Kedavra.

anonymuos

Typo (points at Yates and crew): Sectumsempra! Avada Kedavra!

TrueHPfan

Terrible, simply terrible. I would say the worst or second worst in the series, so many key elements are missing. How is Harry supposed to know that hufflepuffs cup is a horcrux now? How is he supposed to remember that ravenclaws diadem is in the room of requirement if he never placed his potions book there? Bill and Fleur were forgotten, not that they can have a wedding now anyway because they meaninglessly burnt down the burrow. Bill wasn’t mauled by Greyback in the final fight because there was none, and the death eater, Gibbon, lives as well. It seems that 5 death eaters just waltzed out of the school, the proclaimed heavily defended by Auror school, without any notice except one Auror?! And the absence of Dumbledores Funeral(The elder wand being encased in dumbledores tomb, which in itself is important) was disappointing at the least. Overall I trudged trough this movie at the hope of an amazing fight scene at the end, and when that didn’t happen, i was sorely disappointed

Vera

Ah finally!! The voice of some people in the real world. I was so shocked by the brilliant reviews this movie got at rottentomatoes that I wondered if anyone really watched the movie?

I admit the camera work was brilliant, the mood was appropriate, and the humour was spot on with the relationship elements of the book, but seriously!!

The plot sucked. There was no coherence. No character development. The relationship between Dumbledore and Harry, which has never really been explored in any of the movies since the second, was so dead in this movie!! You don’t even feel it when Dumbledore dies. Harry is completely stony faced as Dumbledore falls off the tower. It’s unbelievable that anyone could act so badly. And Michael Gambon is a horrible horrible Dumbledore.

I don’t care if they don’t add all the scenes from the book, but at least hold true to the spirit of the book. It feels like I went to see Harry Potter and instead saw a really bad teen movie. Seriously, they couldn’t even make a decent teen movie. Ever seen Pretty in Pink?

I’m afraid apart from the first two, this whole series of movies has been an utter disappointment to me. I would be willing to give my eyes and ears to anyone with a shred of talent to redirect these movies!!

Vera

Oh and I forgot to mention all the plot holes. You’re telling me all those death eaters walked into Hogwarts, just to see Malfoy or Snape kill Dumbledore? Bellatrix was the only one even attempting to destroy Hogwarts. The rest of them were just like her entourage… Pathetic.

OG

I just saw this movie early matinee hours. I am not a die hard fan but i do love the books, ive read them several times, i read a lot not just the potter books, but it really makes me angry when they destroy something for the sake of time. What 7 year old would care if the move were 4 hour long, beleve me they would sit still every second of it. But nevertheless you could have had the movie remain 155 minutes long and still make it work. Remove the pointless burrow scene add in the missing “memories” that give the clues to finding the horccruxes, dont forget Dumbledore mentioning Nagini which is very imp, probably gonna be nevile who tells harry about again, RUBBISH! you know what the plot did not need was quidditch cut that out and give us the battle near the end, its easy to just have an extra character blurt out the key info, make it work for goodness sake.

JKR should take some tips from Frank Miller on how to protect your master pieces. Frank Miller would have killed Robert Rodriguez and Quentin if they had done something like this with Sin City

To be honest I know the picture, scores, and cinematic art was not as good as say POA movies but I preffered the way the first two movies came out as far as the rewrites BIG TIME.

Derek

Just thinking about the movie again and i came to realize even though the Burrow was started on fire it was never destroyed. So Yates should be still able to do the wedding scene but again this movie was a disappointment.

Reread the 7th book again to see how much detail was in there that required this to be split up and from what i see these last 2 movies will equal around 3 to 3 and a half hours. So i still think that their only splitting up to get as much money out of all the harry potter fans one last time

Liz

I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!

Mitch

yeah i went and seen the movie (havn’t read the book though but i plan too), and when i got home i thought to myself, “Hmm, maybe i can read the last book now as i know what happened in the one before”. But whilst i was reading, and while everything else made sense, i dind’t know how harry knew about the other horcruxes. Now, by reading the comments left, there should have been more detail into those in the movie, and i think they really should have done it. Or maybe they just wanna save it till the next film to fill in time as it’s gonna be two separate movies. I dont know, ill guess ill find out

Anthony

Please! Please! Please! Do not say this was a good movie, if you do, you will reveal your stupidity. HBP was not the best book in the series, but it had so much content that was important to the whole series. How they managed to leave just about all of that content out and still make a 2 and a half hour movie is beyond me. This was an awful, horrible, terrible, and totally pointless movie. DON’T waste your time. DON’T waste your money. I’m just going to enjoy the books and try and forget that they ever made any movies after 1 and 2. Well, movie 3 was ok, but still very weak compared to book 3.

Nikki

They ruined it by burning the Burrow, that’s a main scene in the Deathly Hallows. DUH!!! Where Ginny snogs Harry? You know? And it’s where he goes after escaping Voldemort. I guess if they don’t have the Burrow, than he’ll just have to be killed by Voldemort on broom. It’s stupid too where Ginny ties Harry’s shoe. I loved the movie anyways. It was really good. Sort of scary with the Inferi, but really good.

everybody do what they like to do!
please do not complain more here!
thanks

BK

This movie did not stand alone as a film at all, unwatchable. The acting and directing, phoned in. It’s begging to be remade in 20 years. David Yates must have blackmail material on the studio for them to have let him direct it.

HBP_SUcks

This was absolutely the worst, most attrocious, pointless, and completely boring movie out of the entire series. It was a pile of stinking feces.

Lukas

I’m 15. I’m a Harry Potter fan from when I was a kid.
This review was obviously made by some random dude,
who is not a fan that gets into details.

I hated everything, except for the teacher Horace Slughorn, his acting was amazing!

I don’t know why, but everything else seems so dark.
The color correction, the way characters speak, act…

I hated the random scenes that are not in the book, especially the one when the Weasley’s house was burned down.

Romance… as a teen I’ve experienced it and I must say, the romance in this movie is very crappy.
Kissing( not talking about the part with ron & levender )…
The worst thing I’ve ever seen.

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